and it’s telling what the world means when it says “how the Muslims reacted”. are they talking about all 1.4 billion or the group of thugs that tried to burn a church down in gaza and ramallah, or the looney that killed the nun?

This is different. This is a case of one group of people in US society being fair game, when this kind of treatment would never be dealt out to African, Jewish, Hispanic etc Americans.

As I said earlier, can anyone seriously imagine the dealership having a day lampooning African American culture or reinforcing stereotypes about blacks?

I do not present the biblical words of Jesus as a condemnation of the Islamic faith, but as an explanation of the thoughts of those who were raised in the Christian faith. To riot and take hostages and commit violent acts because of an insult is against those teachings, and it is difficult if not impossible for someone brought up in that faith to understand that someone else would not also “forgive and educate” rather than destroy.

many Muslims are also under the impression that the west is fighting a war against their religion and this is an automatic defence mechanism. that being said, it is a bit absurd to think that Muslims would stand helplessly by when their religion is being insulted and not expect even the smallest voice of protest.

Almost nothing will incite them to the point of violence en masse, although some things will do. It is a common western thought that if something is truly holy and sacred, then it is “bigger” than a man’s insult, it cannot be harmed by a mere insult or poorly chosen phrase.

The westerner sees Islamic peoples rioting and performing acts of violence because of cartoons that represent the Prophet (pbuh) as violent, and consider that perhaps there is truth to the cartoon.

We are not put here by God with any promise of never being offended. We are given no promise of an easy, untroubled, perfect dance through this life.

In the Christian Bible, Jesus says to his followers that they should be good to those who hate them. That they should “turn the other cheek” when they are insulted, and that they should forgive their enemies not only 7 times, but 70 times 7.

This to them is not weakness, but the strength of knowledge that their position is correct, and even the most unpleasant insult cannot harm their faith or religion - for it is stronger than any insult or defamation.

Funny thing is some ignorant red neck is likely to see the word “Jihad” on advertisements for the place and decide to firebomb “that thar car-deelorship what has dem Moozlims owning it”.

The first is that this is a sign of the huge ignorance that most Americans, especially outside the East and West coasts, have of the outside world.

Americans internalise the most superficial images from the outside world…and for a lot of people in Ohio, Muslims = scary guys in beards chopping off people’s heads. To the point that it is being used for “humorous” advertising jingles and campaigns

The second is to look at how these stereotypes have become common currency. I mean, just imagine if the same car dealership ran a promotion around “Compton Saturdays! A free toy AK for every kid to recreate that true drive by shooting experience!”

We don’t seem to differentiate between being criticized and being wrongly-accused or insulted; we mix between both and hence get angry without knowing why?

The mimicked vigilance we seem to practice with everything that comes out from “others” and group them under one theme of “a crusade against Islam” be it some Scandinavian cartoons, a VW campaign or a dozy German Pope speaking out of utter conviction in a specific circle, somehow they all appear (to us at least) to be conspiring against us.

But we fail to recognize that what we’re really suffering from is the ever so obvious symptom engulfing all defeated nations & cultures, the extreme sensitivity and confrontational attitude in the wrong arenas just won’t levitate us from this despicable state of affairs.

We boycott for the wrong reasons and leave the good ones for no reason! We barely manage to orchestrate our standpoints in our localities, yet alone to do so on an Islamic scale.

I’m not calling for turning a blind eye against such daylight insults and avoid such beef, it goes without saying that this Mitsu dealer must be stopped, and Mitsu the Japanese carmaker (will 30% American by now) should be addressed and practice its corporate responsibility & ethics over this blunt Yankee dealer.